Boys on wild ride in Texas

Dallas, Texas – The Pilipa’a Boys’ 18’s team has been on a wild ride at the 2016 USA Volleyball Boy’s National Championship Tournament at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas.

The 18’s opened the tournament with a disappointing back-to-back losses. Vegas VB18 Black defeated Pilipa’a 2-0(25-18, 25-19) to start the tournament. Pilipa’a improved their level of play for match two, however untimely errors kept Pilipa’a from closing out the match and led to a narrow loss to HPSTL B18 Orange 0-2 (23-25, 23-25). Pilipa’a got their first win in their final match of day 1 with at 2-0 (25-18, 25-19) win over FORZA1 18 ASICS.

Pilipa’a 3rd place finish in the 4-team pool put them in a challenge match Thursday morning. Pilipa’a would have to win the challenge match to stay in contention for Gold in the tournament. Pilipa’a stepped up to the challenge defeating Panther 18 Gold 2-1(27-25, 24-26, 15-8). The challenge match advanced Pilipa’a in to their next pool play bracket and what would prove to be a long, challenging and successful day. Pilipa’a lost two matches in row to Seaside 18 Black of Southern California 1-2 (25-21, 18-25, 11-15) and Vaqueros – Frank of Puerto Rico 0-2 (13-25, 23-25). Pilipa’a won their final match of pool play 2-1 (22-25, 25-23, 15-12) over LVBC of Southern California. The win forced a 3-way tie for Pilipa’a with Seaside and LVBC at 1-2 in pool play. Pilipa’a won back-to-back single-game tie breaker matches over LVBC (25-21) and Seaside (25-21) to stay in contention for the gold medal. “Our passing was shaky in the first few matches of the tournament, but better passing over the next several games led to better offense. That improvement led to the challenge match wins, said Boy’s Head Coach Ecko Osorio.

Our Pilipa’a 14’s began play in the 14U Club Division on Thursday and posted a strong 2-1 record for the day with wins over Panther City 14 2-0(25-17, 25-20) and RVCH B14’s (25-22, 25-14) and a 0-2 (12-25, 9-25) loss to #2 seeded SMBC 14 of Southern California.